Mixed grill at Babylon, $17.50.
I've been past Footscray's Babylon Iraqi restaurant many times and not been sure what to think.
It has a forbiddingly dark interior, nautical theme and garish lights. But, I've heard the food is authentic, inexpensive and very good.
Named after an ancient area of Iraq popularised in a 1970s song about the 'Rivers of Babylon', the restaurant fuses popular Lebanese foods like felafel, kebabs and pizzas with lesser-known Iraqi fare such as the barche, a sheep's head dish with offal and bread.
Given we were eating dinner with little kids, we kept it simple and ordered a minced lamb pizza ($3), large chips and two mixed grills which come with eight dips, an Iraqi garden salad, rice with vegetables, warm pide bread, one chicken and one lamb shish kebab skewer, and shavings of lamb and chicken. At only $17.50, the mixed grill was great value and hard to finish.
I can't wait to go back again and order the leg of lamb. You read that right, a leg of lamb, served with rice. For $220 you can get the entire lamb with all the trimmings.
Babylon offer a $4.95 kids menu that includes standard kiddie fare like spaghetti bolognese, chicken/lamb souvlaki and chicken nuggets.
